Bright Sword's Bloody War of Resistance

The status of the Japanese emperor in Japan is equivalent to that of the Liu emperors, who have been passed down from the Western Han Dynasty to modern times. Although the inheritance of the throne has experienced many ups and downs during this period, even when the shogunate was in power, they did not dare to change the dynasty.

In the eyes of the Japanese people, the Japanese emperor is a sacred representative, but in the eyes of Japanese dignitaries and chaebols, the Japanese emperor is the representative of interest groups, a lever to pry open the entire country, a slogan calling on the people to respond, and should be a puppet who is high above and aloof from worldly affairs.

When opinions are the same, the entire state machine runs at high speed, and the only cost is that the lower-class people become consumables. But when opinions are different, the ideas of the Japanese emperor are not that important.

The Imperial Guards Division was recalled to Japan on the pretext of participating in suppressing domestic rebellions and guarding Tokyo. In fact, the Japanese emperor himself felt threatened and tried to use the Imperial Guards Division to strengthen his own defense. However, the Imperial Headquarters issued an order for the Imperial Guards Division to stop at Kaishu Bay on its return journey.

The root cause of Japan's current conflicts is actually the struggle between the Imperial Way Faction and the Control Faction, but both are factions within the Japanese military. Their core views are the same, both demanding military dictatorship internally and aggressive wars externally, but their members come from different classes.

Most of the Imperial Way Faction came from the lower classes of society. They were officers who did not graduate from the Army University and were mostly middle and lower-level officers. They had great difficulty in getting promoted in the army. They advocated "respecting the emperor" and clearing out the court. They demanded that the Japanese emperor rule the country personally, overthrow the powerful and big capitalists, and rely on force to carry out reforms from the bottom up.

Most of the control faction came from the elite class, graduated from Army University and were middle and upper-level military officers. They advocated maintaining the current political system internally, especially maintaining the ruling position of the military, abandoning violent revolution, and implementing reforms from top to bottom.

The fundamental difference between the two lies in their class standpoints. The slogan shouted by the Imperial Way Faction is that the Emperor is the greatest, but the Emperor needs the support of the military, and those who disobey will be killed. The slogan of the Control Faction is that the military is the greatest under heaven, and even the Emperor must respect the military, and those who disobey will be transferred.

So in 1935, a young officer from the Imperial Way Faction walked into the office of the representative of the Control Faction, the then Director of the Military Affairs Bureau, Nagata Tetsuzan, and nailed him to the door with a knife.

In 1936, under the promotion of some people behind the scenes, the commander of the st Division was ordered to be transferred to Manchuria. The lower-level officers of the st Division stationed in Tokyo believed that this was the Control Faction trying to eliminate the power of the Imperial Way Faction. They eventually planned a mutiny and began to kill the "bad guys" around the Emperor.

However, the dispute between the Imperial Way Faction and the Control Faction was not the mainstream of the Japanese army. The real contradiction was between the Choshu clan and the Satsuma clan, and between the army and the navy. Therefore, in the February 26 Incident, only one senior army officer died, and the rest of the dead were all senior naval officers.

The success of the mutiny depended on the attitude of the Japanese emperor, but Emperor Hirohito did not buy it. First, the officers and soldiers who participated in the mutiny broke the bottom line. Second, although the officers and soldiers raised the slogan of "respecting the emperor" and "clearing the court", they made a second plan and invited Emperor Hirohito's younger brother to Tokyo.

Finally, the naval fleet arrived in Tokyo Bay, and with the joint efforts of the army and navy, the officers and soldiers who participated in the mutiny were suppressed.

Among them, there is one person who must be mentioned. He was born into a declining samurai family. He was a member of the Imperial Way faction at first, but later switched to the Control faction. He was finally promoted for suppressing officers and soldiers in the February 26 Incident.

In fact, Okamura Yasuji was regarded as an idol of the counterattack of the Imperial Way Faction officers and soldiers. After Okamura Yasuji's plane crashed while flying over the Eighth Route Army base, the Imperial Way Faction's power in the Japanese army completely declined.

It was not until Emperor Hirohito felt that his rule was threatened that he remembered the Imperial Way Faction. However, it was too late by then. Without the permission of the military, Hirohito's orders could not leave the palace.

At this time, the commander of the Japanese Southern Army, Terauchi Hisaichi, proposed to the headquarters to increase troops, requesting to send two ground divisions to Burma, one division to Malaya, and additional troops to other regions. In addition, he urgently called for the expansion of the 2th Army in Burma into a front army. In view of the current situation, the Japanese military decided to abandon the previous strategic intention of focusing on achieving military control and public security in the occupied areas, and turned its main focus to the preparation and operation of repelling the Allied counterattack, and put the defense focus on Burma and major resource production areas.

于是，军部下令成立缅甸方面军，下辖第15军，包括第18、33、55、56等四个师团以及即将增派的第15师团和31师团。

At the same time, Yamashita Tomoyuki, commander of the First Front Army of the Kwantung Army, led the 12th, 14th, 57th and 71st divisions, the 3rd Tank Brigade and related attached units south into the pass. The 12th and 71st Divisions advanced to Beijing along the Bac Ninh Railway and then fought on both sides of the Pinghan Line.

The front army headquarters led the 14th, 57th Divisions and the 3rd Tank Brigade from Tianjin along the Jinpu Line to the south, and joined the Guards Division in Xuzhou. The goal was to eliminate the Eighth Route Army troops entrenched on both sides of the Longhai Line.

Previously, the Kwantung Army had 14 infantry divisions, 3 tank divisions, 1 tank training brigade, 1 cavalry brigade, 9 independent garrisons and several direct-affiliated units, totaling about 70 people.

Due to the rise of uprisings in Japan, the 1st, 9th and 24th divisions were transferred back to Japan to quell the rebellion. Together with the troops mobilized this time, a total of seven infantry divisions and one tank brigade were reduced.

The Japanese military mobilized Kwantung Army soldiers to fight in the Pacific region in the name of reinforcing the Southern Army. Except for a few senior generals, the officers and soldiers below were basically kept in the dark.

There were many military dependents in the puppet state of Manchukuo, so the news spread quickly. The Nationalist government and our party's intelligence personnel lurking outside the Great Wall learned of the news one after another, but they were not aware of the specific troop movements.

What followed was a series of chain reactions. Chiang Kai-shek did not know at that time that the Japanese troops stationed in Burma had not only been upgraded to a front army, but also had two additional infantry divisions dispatched specifically to deal with the Expeditionary Force.

Chiang Kai-shek was very dissatisfied with the Americans' intentional support for the Communist Party's policy of checks and balances, so when he learned that the Japanese army was reinforcing Southeast Asia, he even felt a little gloating.

Chiang Kai-shek certainly did not dare to embarrass his financial sponsor, but wanted to see what the Eighth Route Army would do next. Although previous investigations did not confirm that our party had reached an aid agreement with the Americans, the rumor has been rampant.

When the Americans learned of this, they were horrified and contacted the Eighth Route Army via telegrams many times. Even Zhou Weihan received a telegram from Stilwell.

"Commander, the military district has sent a telegram asking you to return to the meeting immediately!"

"okay, I get it!"

Zhou Weihan, on the other hand, seemed relieved. He gave detailed instructions before leaving, and then returned to Heze with his security guards. (End of this chapter)